Sally Schumann becomes the ninth castaway to exit 'Survivor: Panama'

By Reality TV World staff, 04/16/2006

The third victim of the game's predictable post-merge "pagonging" that even the introduction of a hidden Immunity Idol has thus far proven unable to disrupt, Sally Schumann, a 27-year-old social worker from Chicago, IL, became the ninth Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island castaway to be eliminated from the game.

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Thursday night's CBS broadcast of Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island's ninth episode began with the Gitanos tribe having returned from the Night 21 Tribal Council session in which the "pagonging" continued, resulting in former La Mina member Austin Carty being voted out of the competition.

The next morning, a confident Terry Dietz, having already won both the game's first two individual immunity challenges and also having secretly found Exile Island's hidden Immunity Idol, asked Aras Baskauskas and Shane Powers where he would fit in "when we get down to the six." Responding immediately, both Aras and Shane made it clear that Terry being one of the final six castaways was "not part of the plan."

Meanwhile, as Terry talked with Aras and Shane, Danielle DiLorenzo unsuccessfully searched his bag for the hidden Immunity Idol he'd offered her when attempting to convince her to change alliances prior to Austin's elimination. "Before Austin went home, Terry showed me some sort of hidden Immunity Idol," she explained during confessional. "I mean, it was something furry and I mean, he could be making this up and could just... I dunno, found I guess this furry thing out in the woods and could be showing it to me pretending like it's the hidden idol."

Afterward, Aras approached allies Danielle, Cirie Fields, and Courtney Marit and told them that should they be in a position to choose the next person to be sent to Exile Island, he wanted them to send him. "I want to go snoop around, I want to know if T-Dog [Terry] has that [idol] thing," Aras told them. "I don't know if someone has found the hidden Immunity Idol and I want to go figure that out for myself," he explained later.

Later that same day, the castaways competed in their next Reward Challenge -- a strange competition that divided the castaways into two teams and required one member of each team to lie in a bungee cord-suspended "cradle" while the other three members used ropes to maneuver the person so that they would be able to grab fifteen flags and re-position them into their ordered slots. The first team to complete the challenge would win the chance to eat peanut butter sandwiches and milk while viewing videotapes prepared by their loved ones. Additionally, the winning team would also decide which member of the losing team would be sent to Exile Island.

Although the competition remained close for some time, Danielle's team of Aras, Shane and Cirie eventually fell behind when they began to repeatedly knock some of their completed flags loose, resulting in Courtney's team of herself, Terry, Bruce Kanegai, and Sally Schumann winning the challenge comfortably. After their win, Terry suggested sending Aras to Exile Island -- a suggestion that Courtney, having already been approached by Aras earlier, had no problem agreeing.

Out on Exile Island, Aras quickly set about trying to find the hidden Immunity Idol, only to find the clues confusing and eventually decide to end his search. "Terry is the person I fear may have the idol, it would be a real easy move on his part to just send me out here, knowing that I'm his biggest physical competitor and that it might weaken me physically to be out here," Aras explained. "So his quickness to send me might suggest that there is no Immunity Idol out here, so there's no sense in me looking for it."

On Day 24, Aras returned from Exile Island and the eighth castaways assembled for the Immunity Challenge. However before the competition began, Survivor host Jeff Probst gave everyone the chance to opt out of the competition and instead chow down on cheeseburgers, fries, and soft drinks during the duration of the challenge. Secure about their position in the game, Danielle, Courtney, Shane, Cirie, and Bruce all decided to enjoy the food, leaving only Aras standing between either Terry or Sally winning immunity from the evening's upcoming Tribal Council session. "Aras, it's all you," Courtney remarked.

Once the five former Casaya revealed their decisions not to compete, the challenge -- a simple competition that required the castaways to swim offshore, memorize seven underwater symbols, and then swim back to shore and replicate the symbols -- began. Although Aras was the first castaway to tell Jeff that he thought he'd replicated the symbols, it turned out that his pattern was incorrect, resulting in Terry successfully solving the puzzle as Aras desperately attempted to swim back offshore for a second look at the symbols. The win marked Terry's third straight individual Immunity Challenge victory, keeping him (much to the dismay of the former Casaya members hoping to vote him out of the game) undefeated in such challenges.

After the tribe returned to camp, Aras explained the reasoning behind his decision to, unlike the rest of his allies, compete in the Immunity Challenge. "Today's Immunity Challenge, anybody who wanted to not participate in the challenge could sit and have cheeseburgers [but] there was no question what I was going to do because it's very possible that I could go home today," Aras explained in confessional. "If Sally ends up having the hidden Immunity Idol then Sally and Terry's vote will knock somebody [else] out."

Meanwhile, Terry revealed the hidden Immunity Idol to Bruce -- making Bruce a believer. "Until this moment, I really was kinda questionable about him having the Immunity Idol but I agree that is the Immunity Idol and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens tonight," Bruce told the cameras after Terry's disclosure.

At the same time, Sally -- desperate to remain in the game -- began attempting to convince the former Casaya women that if they didn't decide to switch sides and ally themselves with Terry and herself, she and Terry would use the hidden Immunity Idol to send one of their allies home at the evening's upcoming Tribal Council session. However when Courtney questioned Terry about his willingness to use the hidden Idol to save Sally, Terry refused to even confirm that he had the idol. "I'm not saying I have it, I'm just saying that it's out there and it could be put in play tonight," Terry told her. "What I am proposing is getting Bruce on our side and then get somebody else like you to come over and make it a guaranteed four, and then we'll vote the four votes for Aras and he'll be gone."

While Courtney declined to immediately commit to Terry's offer, she did find the proposition interesting. "I would like to align with Terry, because I would love to go against him in the Final Two," she later admitted in confessional. "There's no clear cut way for me to go right now. I'm really still kind of confused in my mind."

Meanwhile, just as he hadn't been willing to use it to save Austin from being voted off at the last Tribal Council session, Cirie wasn't buying the idea that Terry would sacrifice his hidden Idol to save Sally. "You mean to tell me you have an ace in the hole and you're going to just hand that over because you're such a nice person to somebody else," Cirie told Bruce as the pair discussed the situation. "Come on, give me a break. I'll be surprised, he may do it, and if he does that will go down as the worst move in Survivor history because then he had to win every single challenge."

In the end, Cirie proved correct, with the six former Casaya member deciding to call Terry's bluff and cast their votes for Sally as Terry ultimately deciding to not give her the hidden Immunity Idol, resulting in Sally's elimination. As the ninth castaway to be eliminated, Sally joins Austin as the second member of the seven-person jury that will ultimately decide which of Survivor: Panama's two finalists will receive the competition's $1,000,000 grand prize.